Written for the Quidditch Pitch in Harry Potter's World (prompts: Playbook, Remus/Lily), the Trolley in The Golden Snitch (prompt: "You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them."), the Writing Bingo on Diagon Alley II (prompt: Petunia Evans) and utilizing several prompts from various threads in Gringotts Prompt Bank.

Petunia Evans was standing at the very edge of the clearing her sister had chosen for her wedding. Everything was beautifully decorated, keeping the natural theme the location provided.

Everyone else was sat in the middle of the open space, rows of plastic chairs forming an aisle. Only Petunia was standing here, alone with her thoughts.

It wasn't until roughly a third of the ceremony had passed that she heard a rough, deep voice behind her, causing her to flinch.

"I must confess, I did not expect to find anyone else here."

She turned around. Petunia instantly recognized the tall man. His nose was just as hooked, his hair even greasier, and he still wore black robes.

"Oh. It's you."

"Yes," Severus Snape answered, unimpressed and not quite leaving the shadow the trees provided.

They stood there silently for a few seconds, watching her sister's wedding side by side. They were two lonely souls, united by the loss of a third.

"Why aren't you down there?"

"Why should I be? My sister hates me and I know a total of five people here if I include my parents, my sister and you. And if everything else wasn't enough, I've just been dumped. And you? Aren't you her best friend?"

Severus looked up into the cherry blossoms that surrounded them. "I haven't been in a long while. I'm not even invited, but I just could not stay away."

A couple of seconds passed without another word. "What happened?"

"I made a mistake. I insulted her in the worst way possible. She must despise me now."

Petunia looked into Severus' eyes. "You know, just because you hate someone that doesn't mean that you stop loving them. Believe me, I speak from experience."

Neither of them spoke a word as they watched Lily move along the aisle, towards her husband to be, Remus Lupin.

"I loved her. I still do," Severus whispered. His words were just barely audible.

"I know," Petunia replied. "I always knew. From the very moment you entered her life. You took her away from me. The change was sudden. From one day to the other, it was like I didn't have a sister anymore."

"Quick, but nevertheless the most painful and detrimental kind."

"Exactly," she agreed. "I admire you for being here, you know?"

"Why would you ever do something like that?" Severus raised his left eyebrow.

"By being here you are accepting your defeat. You accept that Lily does not love you and never will. That is an admirable gesture, even if you won't let yourself be seen." She took a strand of her blonde hair and twisted it. "I am here because I have to be. And it's making me realize how scared I am of being alone."

Severus turned his head to the side. "Why would you be?"

Petunia let go of her hair and laughed dryly. "You must be joking. My sister is kind, compassionate, beautiful, strong and independent. But me? I am none of these. I hoped that Vernon would be different, but not even he can love me. I didn't even really love him, I think. I was just drowning in my loneliness and I threw a lifeline, hoping to catch a dream."

"The same must be true for me, I suppose," Severus confessed after a few seconds of consideration. "But it could have ended worse. I could have ruined Lily, had she chosen me. But she didn't and, consequently, neither did I. Instead I just made her more interesting. The Gryffindor Muggleborn that was friends with a Slytherin Death Eater to be."

"I hope that you know I didn't understand anything you just said."

"I very nearly became a Death Eater. They are the minions of the current Dark Lord." He looked at her and noticed the confusion still in her eyes. "The Dark Lord is, for all intents and purposes, a magical version of Adolf Hitler."

Severus looked in the direction of the wedding once again. Petunia followed his eyes. Lily and Remus were currently exchanging their by the few faces she could see, it must have been very touching.

"And Lily would be a Jew in that metaphor?" She waited for him to nod. "I can see why that made her interesting. Why didn't you?"

"Pardon?" He tore his eyes away from the scene.

"You said you nearly became one of them. A Death Eater. What stopped you?"

"My greatest enemy."

Petunia motioned for him to continue.

"James Potter. He, too, loved Lily. She never liked him. She despised his childish behaviour, his thoughtless pranks, and the fact that he humiliated me at any given opportunity."

"That sounds like Lily," Petunia nodded proudly.

"It was just days after I made the biggest mistake in my life so far. We were in the village near our school and one of the Death Eaters attacked a group of third years. Lily ran to defend them and did not spot another one aiming at her. Potter, however, did. He knew that Death Eaters aim to kill. And yet, despite this, despite the fact that Lily had publicly stated that she didn't like him in any way, shape or form the one time he had worked up the courage to ask her out, he still took that spell for her. He died so that she could live. I thought I could read him like a book. I thought he just liked her because she was the one girl he could not have. Clearly, I was wrong."

"He must have loved her deeply then. There is no rulebook for love, no playbook that defined certain steps and set rules, but he sacrificed everything so that Lily may have something. Perhaps he was like a book for you, but the pages were simply too torn and frayed, the words too faint to decipher, and you simply misinterpreted the few words you could identify."

For a final time they looked at the scene in front of them. Lily was finally kissing her husband. She was Lily Lupin now, not Lily Evans. She was someone else.

It was time for her to do the same.

"I never thought I would say this to you, but I really enjoyed our conversation. Would you like to continue at another time?"

Severus gave her a small smile. "I would like that."

Come and join the forum Harry Potter's World! You can find many prompts there and the selection is ever increasing! If you sign up before Halloween, both of us will earn additional house points, provided you mention my name.

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~Marvelgeek42